House Speaker Zellers: Voting is ‘a privilege, it’s not a right’

Another waste of time for the veto pen.

Of course, Republicans think voting is a privilege, even in contravention of the US Constitution and common sense. If only the privileged vote, Republicans win because they’re fighting to enshrine and defend privilege.

Politicians only “misspeak” when they let the uncomfortable truth slip.

To me, this is the scariest thing about this new crop of Republican lawmakers. They’re anti-democracy. They don’t think U.S. Senators should be elected by popular vote.

What exactly DO they want?

A balanced budget? They had thirty years to do that and spent it justifying Reagan’s deficits.

National prosperity? They had that under the Clinton administration and immediately destroyed it during the Bush regime.

They can’t compromise, which means they can’t abide disagreement, let alone dissent.

Connect the dots.

Thank you Mr Speaker for your honesty. What else do people need to hear to prove to them that it can happen here? Perhaps Rep Zellers would comment on the soylent green?

He has apparently changed his mind after the public outcry…but in this case it seems he spoke before he thought about what he was saying and if you speak before you think people find out what is really on your mind.

Of course voting is a right, but it’s a qualified right (see MN Constitution). For example, you must be a citizen of the United States, you must be mentally competent, you can’t be a felon whose rights haven’t been restored, you have to be 18, a resident of the state for at least 20 days. In addition, a voter is only entitled to one vote. Asking voters to demonstrate that they meet these qualifications only makes sense and is in no way violative of a person’s right to vote. Why have any qualifications at all if we aren’t verifying them?

Asking people to obtain a free ID every 4 years is not onerous.

I’ve heard the arguments that maybe some people don’t have the documents they need to get a free ID and have to pay to get those, but it just starts getting ridiculous. People need shoes to walk to the government offices, or even the polling place for that matter. Election Day is November – it’s cold outside and people need a coat to get to the polls. Does that mean if we don’t buy everyone shoes and coats, we’re disenfranchising them, too?

Actually, McDonald’s doesn’t require you to show an ID with a debit card. Even better, if it says “SEE ID” on the back of the card and you hand them your ID with the card, they return the ID immediately. When asked why the reply was, “We don’t want to be responsible for checking IDs.” No lie. St. Louis Park McD’s.

http://www.minnpost.com/community_voices/2009/02/09/6398/the_myth_of_voter_fraud

Voter fraud is a fraud.

I like this meme spreading among conservatives that you need an ID to buy food. The more they repeat it, the more they demonstrate just how out of touch they are with reality.

Both Zellers and Coleman mention McDonald’s. A coincidence? More likely they’re repeating a talking point. He misspoke? He thought about it enough to pull out a comparison. Clearly he didn’t know voting is a constitutional right.

Of course, anyone who thinks who have to show ID at McDonald’s to swipe a debit card isn’t ignorant merely of the Constitution, but of every day life for most of us.

Dan McGrath, nice try at changing the subject. Shouldn’t you be more worried that GOP legislators know nothing about the subjects their legislation addresses?

Dan,

Where’s your evidence of voter fraud?

Eric

“They don’t think U.S. Senators should be elected by popular vote.”

The result of that policy, Senators are more concerned with Washington than the states they come from. Especially with regard to state’s rights.

Hey Dan,
So explain who is going to finance the “free id’s”, where will they be administered, how can people obtain them, what documentation will people need to provide to get them and how will showing an ID prevent the kind of fraud that happened in the Wisconsin judicial election?

Inquiring minds want to know.

If you oppose voter ID, you support vote fraud. If you support vote fraud, you oppose democracy. Anyone who says voter ID is anti-democracy is either ignorant or lying. Voter ID pro-democracy because it’s anti-fraud.
It doesn’t matter what some moron legislator says – the voter ID movement is not a republican vs. democrat issue, it’s a debate regarding safeguarding the integrity of the vote.It’s just too bad that some of those who call themselves democrats oppose voter ID, but it’s not surprising, since they are the same people who cheated to get Franken and Dayton elected, among others over the years.
Cheating is not democratic – Support Voter ID!

The biggest objection I have with the Voter ID intiatives are that they place an unfair burden on the elderly, disabled, and the poor.

The 24th Amendment specifically prohibits payment of “a tax” for the right to vote. Call it a fee if you like, but making someone pay for a state-issued ID is a tax. Period. If there are those who want to go the route of mandating possession of an ID, they had also better provide a mechanism and funds to provide it to all citizens free of charge.

Likewise, the 26th Amendment prohibits disenfranchising the rights of anyone because of age. So, while the Voter ID purists are devising a way to provide free IDs, they had also better devise a way of delivering them to senior citizens at their residence, at their nursing home, etc.

And finally, no one should have to pay any fee for a document that supports their right to vote — no fee for birth certificates or the like. And if they are seniors and cannot do the legwork themselves, then the State must provide that service free of charge.

Get it, Republicans? When you can put these provisions in place and assure that the program will never ever be cut, then we can talk Voter ID.

Ah, the sound of crickets…

@marvls1
Here we go again. If you do’nt agree with me you are against a free democracy. Last election it was if you do not agree with me you are unpatriotic.

Supporting voter id is a waste of everyones time unless you change the constitution and in this case that will not happen.

I need clarification. We should not have universal health care for everyone that is labeled socialiism. Everyone in the country must have a voter id card to vote but that is’nt socialism?

@marvls1,
What voter fraud case are you referring to? This is a solution is in search of a problem. Just because your tribe lost a few close elections doesn’t mean you get to change the rules. This “solution” will cost us taxpayers millions. I thought you “conservatives” didn’t like spending tax dollars via government programs. Review your notes and make your talking points consistent at least. Oh, and proposing elimination of medicare while granting tax subsidies to big oil, the rich, and off shore US companies, needs reviewing too. I’m here to help.

Voter ID will do _nothing_ to prevent any meaningful level of voter fraud. I have a decade plus under my belt as a Election Judge, and have looked at the concept from that viewpoint for years… there’s no there there.

Voter ID’s only effect would be at an individual level (and even then, it’d be minimal). Ask the high schoolers how hard it is to get a fake ID, in particular, one that can fool a elderly retiree with failing eyesight… aka your prototypical election judge volunteer.

ID scanners? Show me a piece of technology, I’ll show you a half-dozen ways to fool or bypass it. I have yet to read any significant discussion of how this technology is supposed to work, let alone what failsafe procedures would be put into place if/when it failed…

For any organization that was going to try to run an actual comprehensive voting fraud operation, Voter IDs are an easily bypassed hurdle, and frankly, one that likely provides a false sense of security that could be helpful to the fraudsters. The existing voter signature books present them a greater challenge to get past without detection than this poorly thought-out boondoggle, esp in a state like ours where high turnout is the norm.

As for the “free” IDs… how long (in seconds, to try to avoid fractions) do you think it will be before the Voter ID advocates are claiming we can’t “afford” to not charge a “nominal” fee for those IDs?

Note, conceptually, I have no problem with the idea of providing IDs to further buttress an already strong set of validation procedures. However, it’s positive impact would be extremely minimal, and between the added costs and exceptional potential for use in vote suppression tactics, the risks far outweigh the benefits, IMO.

-=-

BTW, I don’t think either framing of the issue that is currently in use is really accurate. Voting is neither a right nor a privilege, IMO….it is a DUTY as a citizen of a democracy. The very fact that it is apparently assumed to be in some way “optional” is one of the things that leads me to despair for this country. My two cents.

The best thing we could do at this point is to stay away from the polls; let the Republicans finish scuttling the wreck they have made. Obama and the rest of the establishment Democrats are just Republicans in sheep’s clothing anyway.
At least a bankrupt and divided USA will no longer be able to torment other countries and peoples.

“When you go to even a Burger King or a McDonalds and use your debit card, they’ll ask you to see your ID [to be] sure it’s you,” Zellers said on 95.9 FM’s “Late Debate.” “Should we have to do that when we vote, something that is one of the most sacred — I think it’s a privilege, it’s not a right.”

When you go to a Burger King or a McDonalds they ALSO give you a receipt as physical proof of your purchase. Too bad the same people who put impediments to certain people voting with the phony claim of ‘voter fraud’ concerns are not as adamant about leaving a paper trail to combat the ease of ELECTION FRAUD with electronic voting machines.

If a person casts an illegal ballot, it is a felony.
If a legal citizen is prevented from voting, that should also be a felony.
Whoever passed any laws preventing them from exercising their right should be charged.

George: about ID’s and paying by credit card… two points. First, look on the back of your card. See where it says “not valid unless signed?” Unless you always sign your name as “See Id,” that’s not a signature. And if a store is checking ID’s for credit/debit purchases, they’re violating their merchant agreement (at least with VISA.) That you know your PIN, or that your signature matches the one on the card (an important reason to sign it, as otherwise a thief could simply write your name on the card in their handwriting and voila, it matches!) *is* ample ID, so far as the card company is concerned… and they’re the ones stuck paying for any fraud.

I’m not opposed to having to show ID to vote (at least in theory; as I’m not a Minnesotan, there may well be a “devil in the details” I’m not aware of), but just had to attempt to clear that up. Not that it ever does any good…

The attack on public education is finally showing the results, most people do not know their constitutional rights and will believe what any idiot says. Teaching the Constitution in K-12 education would end up like creationism vs evolution, the right wing will demand that their version of reality be taught along with the facts. Truth and Facts have nothing to do with the GOP’s agenda only control. A rational Person understands that the best way to control the population is to keep them ignorant, that good public education is a threat to the GOP’s agenda. De funding, blaming the teachers and Unions and promoting private control of education is the Rights way of gaining control!